How to Stop Competing on Price (and Start Winning on Value)

Brands often come inbound with a pre-defined Scope of Work (SOW) and Terms.

"How much for two posts, three months of paid usage rights, and three months of exclusivity?"

Most creators make the mistake of hitting reply to that email and spitting back one number like "$1,500."

Congrats, you've now encouraged the brand to compare you to every other partner they're vetting exclusively on price.

That your audience is super engaged, hangs on your every recommendation, and that your content quality crushes have become irrelevant.

The brand takes your rate, adds it to a giant spreadsheet containing all the creators they contacted, then picks the cheapest ones.

I want you to commit to something right here, right now.

Moving forward, whenever a brand asks how much you charge for a specific set of deliverables, send them multiple packages instead.

There are several important reasons to make this a cornerstone of your negotiation strategy.

Firstly, the brand might have found you on a social platform and assumed that was your primary presence. They might not even know you also have a newsletter with 5,000 of your most engaged audience members.

By presenting the brand with multiple packages outlining all the various ways you can amplify the campaign, you open the door to a deeper conversation.

Secondly, brands change their minds all the time. Even though they might say that this specific scope of work and terms are what they want, there could be flexibility.

Even though they asked for two posts, three months of paid usage rights, and three months of exclusivity, your Package 1 could propose a "stripped down" option such as one post, no usage rights, and no exclusivity.

Why can't you do this? (You can.)

Package 2 becomes one post, one month of usage rights, and one month of exclusivity.

Package 3 is now their original ask of two posts, three months of paid usage rights, and three months of exclusivity.

You should then add 1-3 more packages above that to stretch their imaginations!

These higher packages also serve as a price anchor, making Package 3 (their original SOW) feel like a good deal.

Congratulations, you've just hacked the brand's brain.

One of the most challenging jobs a brand or agency has when planning a campaign is "Tetris-ing" all the partners' various rates to pull everything off within budget.

Your goal should always be to ensure the brand has multiple ways to hire you if something happens, like a budget cut. Since you gave them flexibility, they'll still have the option to pick Package 1 or 2.

Now that your mind is racing over the power of packages, there's one structural mistake you must still avoid: making the only variance between each tier quantity.

Vary each package not by quantity but by the brand's objectives.

The RIGHT Way to Structure Your Packages

It's tempting to structure your packages in the following way:

Package 1:

• One post

Package 2:

• Two posts

Package 3:

• Three posts

To incentivize brands to select the top package, creators typically offer price concessions like a 10% discount.

To most brands, that's not very compelling.

Especially if you've never worked with a brand before, the likelihood of them hiring you for a long-term engagement with tons of deliverables is low.

Remember, they're accustomed to dealing with creators who aren't professional, lack timeliness, and are generally a pain in the butt.

So, naturally, they will be hesitant to commit to anything substantial until they have run one campaign with you.

However, you can take a different approach when designing your proposal that will help brands understand why hiring you for the most expensive package is in their best interest.

You must tie each package to the brand's goals.

Let's pretend you're on an initial discovery call with a prospective sponsor (or via email if you're petrified of calls).

You've done your research and asked them a bunch of questions to help you scope the partnership:

• What are your primary goals or success metrics for this collaboration? What would be a "win?"

• Tell me more about this product/service/launch! What do you find most exciting about it?

• Walk me through the competitive landscape. Do you feel you're the clear market leader, or are you fending off new entrants who are gaining ground?

• What are your primary sales channels? Online, retail, etc. Any supply chain issues?

• Have you ever worked with creators before? If so, what worked well? What didn't work so well? If you haven't worked with creators, why not? Do you have specific concerns or hesitations?

• [Insert any additional brand-, industry-, or niche-specific questions]

While all these insights will be helpful, learning the brand's objectives is the most important by far.

Very often, brands will tell you many different goals:

"Awareness! More content! Sales!"

Your first job is to educate them that accomplishing all those objectives with a single post or activation is unlikely.

Your second job then becomes outlining how each package in your proposal is tailored to their specific goals.

Here's the new way you're going to structure your packages:

What I Heard:

• Goal 1: More eyeballs on our launch (Awareness)

• Goal 2: More Content (Repurposing)

• Goal 3: Sales (Conversions)

You'll likely notice that the only way for the brand to accomplish all its objectives is to select the top package.

Let's now address the elephant in the room:

What should the investment be for each package?

At this juncture, creators usually think the best thing to do is ask the brand, "What's your budget?"

They become frustrated when the brand is evasive or stonewalls and says…

"We don't have a budget."

"Can you tell us your standard rates instead?"

"We've never done this before, so can you tell us what's reasonable?"

Putting aside whether the brand honestly doesn't know its budget (unlikely), there's a better question to ask that yields a far more helpful answer.

Ask for a budget range instead.